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A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens - simply to say this simple phrase brings a smile to most people's face and why not&quest; It might be the best short story ever written&comma; or the best loved&comma; or the best known or the most enjoyable&comma; it certainly has to be performed as Dickens himself knew&period; It's December and we must have our pudding&comma; our parsnips and our Christmas Carol&period; The story actually created our modern idea of Christmas&comma; it influences Christmas&comma; it is part of Christmas and it reminds us that there is more to Christmas than a shopping and eating festival&period;

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The story is enormous fun but it is also surprisingly serious&period; Dickens warns that unless despair and poverty are banished from London the City will burn in flames&period;

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Scrooge is frightened half to death and Marley is forever damned&period; Any director or dramatist who turns their hand to this most famous story will soon have to confront this problem&colon; how to do justice to Dickens rather serious themes and still provide the Christmas feast of laughter and joy that the public want&comma; even demand&excl; All we can do is take you down the alleys that Dickens travelled&comma; through a London that defined modern life because it was the first megalopolis&comma; an urban nightmare where the very air was unfit to breathe&period; &lpar;The famous London fog was simply smoke&rpar;&period; The wealthiest city in the world was the city with the most poor in the world&period; This was a contrast that Dickens dedicated much of his life and work to exposing&period; Today the truly poor have been banished to the Third World&comma; London and its like are more comfortable places in which to live but we would do well to remember the message of A CHRISTMAS CAROL&colon; that the Christmas Spirit is joyful because it shares its joy and its feast with others&comma; especially the poor&period; The play is for them and for you&period;